Promises
by J. and J. Hutchisson
Summary: A Redguard, a veteran of many battles and a family man. Victor is content with living in the wilderness with his wife and his two adopted daughters. But the past will always be there, haunting him and beckoning him to return to the adventurous life he once led. His journal reminds him of all the things he left unfinished. All the promises he made...
1. Chapter 1

Victor sighed as he looked around the dining table. It wasn't a frustrated sigh, or a sad sigh, or even a bored sigh. Victor was content with the life he had and so, it was a content sigh. Sitting across the table from him was his loving wife, Uthe. Her pale skin and auburn hair a stark contrast to his dark skin and black hair, yet they were a perfect fit. Under her gruff exterior and impressive combat skills, there was a loving and kind heart that was not quite fit for the ravages of the war. Being with Uthe had taught Victor a few things about himself that he hadn't expected. Once she was able to get past his rough outer shell from all the military training he went through as a young man in Daggerfall, Uthe unearthed a kind soul capable of self-sacrifice and compassion.

Uthe smiled back at Victor before turning her attention to Lucia, one of their adopted daughters. That was one of the things Victor learned about himself, he had a soft spot for children. The war and the sudden threat of dragons had left many families broken and many children orphaned. When the war ended Uthe wanted to settle down, start a family, but for whatever reason, the gods wouldn't gift them with a child. Uthe went through a small time of melancholy and opened a shop in their home in Markarth to keep herself busy. Victor dealt with his disappointment in a different way, he struck out and fought whatever he could.

A full two years went by with him visiting Uthe at home somewhat infrequently in between adventures. However, after exploring dwermer ruins, destroying whole colonies of Falmer, becoming and later curing himself of being a werewolf and stopping the uprising of a Vampire Lord, Victor decided it was time for him to settle down as well, even with everything he had left unfinished, which had led him to build a house near a lake, within walking distance of Riverwood and they moved out of the city. Uthe didn't like it at first, but she began to slowly warm to it.

The meal went by peacefully as usual. Uthe and Victor both helped the girls with their studies before they sent them to bed. Uthe changed into her bedclothes as Victor said goodnight to both girls. They were the highlight of his life. He had never realized how complete it would feel to have a family until he actually had one. Lucia was a very spirited girl. She loved playing outside and had even formed a bond with a small fox cub that now followed her everywhere. Victor admittedly didn't like the idea of having a wild animal following his daughter around, but he didn't have the heart to take it away from her. He couldn't fault an orphan for adopting an animal the way he had adopted her. In a way it was very sweet. Dorthe was quite different. She had thought she would be a blacksmith like her father, but after both Alvor and Sigrid died during a dragon attack, she lost interest in it. Now Dorthe focused on her books and Victor could see her becoming one of the great historians of her time.

Looking down at Dorthe, Victor smiled, leaned down, and kissed her forehead. Looking at Dorthe always made Victor sad. He had been good friends with both Alvor and Sigrid, even though their nephew had been in the Imperial army. The dragon that attacked Riverwood that day had most likely come in search of Victor, being that he was the 'Dragonborn', for all that was worth. Victor fought as hard as he could and finally killed the dragon, but despair soon followed when he found that four people had perished in the battle. He still, to this day, didn't understand why Sigrid or Alvor hadn't just gone back inside the house and let him fight the dragon alone.

With another sigh, he smiled at Dorthe one more time before moving over to Lucia's bed and kissing her goodnight. Across the room, Uthe was slipping under the blankets on their bed. Victor smiled at his wife and stepped out of the room. He moved from room to room, putting out the candles that lit each of them. Above the main hall where their dining table sat ran a balcony. Looking down upon the table from the balcony was a mannequin with the full set of Uthe's steel plate armor. Victor had always thought that she looked amazingly beautiful in that armor. To him, she had seemed the image of a nord goddess; strong, beautiful, and a warrior. Fighting beside her had been one of the best experiences of his life. The steel plate armor had many scratches and nicks in it from the many battles she had fought. The only major flaw in the armor came from the last fight Uthe had been in. A large jagged rend in the left leg of the armor sent a chill down Victor's spine each time he looked at it. He sighed sadly and moved on.


	2. Chapter 2

The last room was their weapon and trophy room, which sat across the main hall from the bedroom. The first candle he put out was next to the full set of ebony armor. Cosnach had worn the armor while the two of them had explored many different Dwermer ruins. The two had become brothers-in-arms, fighting side by side for more than a year. Cosnach met his end at the hands of a vampire. Victor still found it hard to think about the man being dead. Several of Cosnach's drinking songs rang in his mind as he looked at the armor and a sad smile made its way across his face.

The next set of candles that he put out sat at the base of a mannequin with the snow elf armor he had taken off the corpse of the Falmer priest turned vampire that he and Serana had killed to get Auriel's Bow. They had been close to the end of a long journey and he wanted something to remember it with. Plus it wasn't every day you came across armor of a race everyone thought was extinct. One of the main things he remembered about that adventure was the fact that he and Serana had begun to fall in love, but Victor firmly believed in monogamy.

The set of candles near the middle of the room's back wall sat next to the mannequin with General Tullius' armor. He kept it as a reminder of all the good people, Nord or not, that were killed because the Empire was too cowardly to stand up to the Thalmor. He was glad that Uthe hadn't been one of those people, though he did miss many of the comrades he had fought with.

The fourth set of candles sat at the base of a mannequin with the armor of Serana's father. His wild and insane ambition had stained his family the way his thirst for blood had stained the floor of his castle. Victor admitted to himself that cutting a bloody path through all those vampires and their thralls to reach the Vampire Lord himself had been one of the most exhilarating experiences ever. Thinking back on it, the thought of feeling alive while fighting the undead seemed almost laughable to him, yet oddly, right somehow. Serana had made her love for Victor clear after they destroyed her father and that was where their friendship and time together ended. It only took Victor a week to make it home to Uthe and decide that he wouldn't adventure out again unless she told him he could.

The final set of candles cast an eerie glow upon the last mannequin in the room. Victor had always enjoyed working with his hands and had apprenticed himself to a blacksmith while he was in the military in Daggerfall. The man's name was Filt and he was the greatest blacksmith in all of Tamriel. Filt taught Victor how to work the metal, how to bend it to his will and how to respect its qualities, so he could make the finest weapons and armor. Even after Victor came to Skyrim, he continued to practice metalworking. That set of ebony armor that Cosnach had worn had been made by Victor after they had been adventuring together for a few months. The orc smith in Markarth had examined the armor when he brought Cosnach back for his funeral. The big orc had offered Victor a hefty sum for it, saying that he had never seen such craftsmanship, but Victor wasn't about to let it go. It turned out that the ebony armor had just been practice. Between the time that he had lost Cosnach and started travelling with Serana, Victor had collected as many dragon bones as he could and made himself a full set of dragon bone armor. Everyone could instantly recognize him as the Dragonborn now, though that was not his intention. Victor simply wanted to be able to better protect himself and fight to defend those who mattered to him. The dragon bone armor weighed heavily upon this last mannequin and Victor could almost feel it pulling at him.


	3. Chapter 3

With the last candles extinguished, Victor walked to the bedroom in the dark and changed into his bed clothes. All the memories of his travels, adventures and companions rolled around in Victor's mind as he tried to fall asleep.

The next morning came to the Redguard somewhat slowly and foggily. The sun was streaming in the windows at an angle that told him he had slept in later than he meant to. With a yawn and a stretch Victor sat up and found Uthe sitting at the foot of the bed, looking at him with that concerned look she had sometimes.

"Good morning, dear," Victor said.

"You want to go back out into the world, don't you?" his beautiful wife asked. One of the many things he loved about Uthe was the fact that she was direct and didn't sugar coat anything.

"What makes you say that?"

"It has been taking you longer and longer to come to bed at night as you walk through the armory, remembering the adventures of the past. And last night you were talking and muttering in your sleep. Most of it was gibberish, but the bits I understood I knew came from your campaign against the vampires and Lord Harkon."

"Please don't say his name," Victor said before he could stop himself.

"Sorry." Uthe looked at her husband for several long moments in silence.

"I was mostly missing the friends I had lost and thanking the gods that you hadn't been among them." Victor tried to give her a reassuring smile. "I'm very happy living here with you and the girls."

The corner of Uthe's smiling mouth twitched a little, as though with amusement. Her hand came out from behind her holding a familiar looking book. Victor mentally noted that fact that he must be losing his touch if he didn't notice her hand not being visible. The book was tossed and plopped onto the bed next to his legs.

Uthe stood and moved to walk out of the room. "I'll have breakfast ready for you when you are ready to come eat."


	4. Chapter 4

Victor picked up his journal and turned it over slowly in his hands. He hadn't held it in over a year. Even after he stopped adventuring he had kept it with him as it just felt odd not to have it. His time as a soldier back in Daggerfall had taught him the importance of keeping things written to help him remember them later. Opening the journal, he found several things written on the first page, all of them ending with 'Completed'. The sense of accomplishment that came with writing that one word was a good feeling that he had missed. Victor had to leaf through twenty pages before he came across the first entry that didn't have that word at its end.

_18 Frostfall 4E 201 _

_I came back to Whiterun after helping kill the dragon. One of the guards that survived called me Dovahkin, Dragonborn. He said that the event that happened when I approached the dead dragon was me absorbing its soul. Needless to say, I was a little creeped out by the attention I was getting from them, so I left in a hurry. Just inside the gates, when I returned to Whiterun, I heard some strange voices shout with a crack of thunder the same word; Dovahkin. The Jarl said it was a summons and that I should walk the 7000 steps to visit with the Graybeards. Stupid name, if you ask me._

There had been so much left undone when he decided to settle down and start a family. The next few entries had been labeled 'Completed', but a few pages later he came across another incomplete entry.

_29 Frostfall 4E 201_

_Cleared out a mine of some bandits for some extra coin today. Nothing too special. Only thing that was interesting and out of the ordinary was a white orb, about the size of my head that I found in one of the chests. When I picked it up the voice of a Deadric Prince came to me and tasked me with finding her shrine so I could do some menial quest for her. I really wish disembodied voices would stop talking to me._

Victor laughed at himself. It didn't seem possible that he could have been such a different person three years ago. He would give anything to be summoned on a quest now. The sudden realization of what he was considering came to him with a feeling of disgust. He moved across the bed and set the journal on top of the safe that sat next to the nightstand. The hint of a smirk pulled at the corner of his mouth when he remembered what was inside the safe. Most of the items he had collected during his adventures had been stored in several chests in the armory, but he had locked Meridia's Beacon in that safe. There were several reasons, the greatest among them being that he didn't want his daughters to think it a toy and try to play with it. Inadvertently incurring the wrath of a Daedric Prince was not something he wanted for his girls.


	5. Chapter 5

Victor wondered if just leaving the Beacon in the safe and ignoring the Daedra would incur her wrath just the same. He thought about that as he dressed and walked out to the table. Uthe had made a delicious morning meal of eggs, bacon and seasoned potatoes. Everything had come from the small bit of farmable land they had around the house. That was one of the reasons Victor picked this spot. They could be completely self-sufficient if they needed to be.

Victor stared at his empty plate for several minutes, lost in thought. Uthe told the girls to head outside and start on their chores. Both Dorthe and Lucia thanked their mother for the meal and headed outside, the little fox trotting after Lucia. When the door shut, Uthe walked around and sat next to Victor. Her hand found his and squeezed it.

"It's okay if you want to go," Uthe said. Her soft and loving voice held no angst or forced guilt in it. "I just ask that you come back and visit us more often than you did when you were hunting vampires."

"No, I'm not going anywhere." Victor looked at Uthe's beautiful face and then back to his plate. "I won't abandon you and the girls."

"Love, you wouldn't be abandoning us. I can take care of the girls and the house just fine. And remember you hired Marcurio as steward. He might be just a mage, but he'll help watch the house."

"I heard that," Marcurio said from somewhere upstairs. Uthe and Victor both laughed.

"All those entries in your journal," Uthe continued, "are promises made to people, both great and small. Daedric Princes, Jarls, and common folk alike. Just make sure you come back every once in a while. You'll be making the world a safer place for our girls to grow up in."

Victor looked up to see Uthe smiling broadly at him. He looked across the table and into the open door of the armory where his dragonbone armor stood, waiting.

"I will come back, I promise," Victor said.

Uthe leaned forward and kissed him. "I know you will, my love. Go get dressed. I'll tell the girls you're going away for a few days and we'll say our goodbyes by the road." She stood and walked toward the door. Victor watched her walk away from him and hoped he could keep his promise to her.


	6. Chapter 6

The dragonbone armor fit a little more snuggly than Victor remembered. The dragonbone greatsword felt heavier than he remembered too, so he left it on the wall and took the silver sword he had acquired while in the company of the Companions. One last look was given to the ebony armor on the other side of the room before he turned and went to collect the final item from the bedroom. Placing the Beacon in his pack, Victor felt as though he was ready to travel. It had been a long time since he had done anything like this, but he was sure that it was the right thing to do.

Outside the house he found Uthe, Lucia and Dorthe waiting for him. The two girls ran up to him and hugged him tight, though he had to warn them to be careful of the protruding bones of his armor. That was the first moment that he actually reconsidered his favorite armor. Maybe it was better as just a trophy, a remembrance of his adventures with Serana.

Both girls were a little tearful with his departure, Dorthe more so than Lucia. He promised to bring something back for both of them and that seemed to make them feel a little better. He took his helmet off so that he could give Uthe a proper kiss before making his way down the road.

His travels led Victor to Markarth before he headed north toward Solitude. He spent the night in Markarth, in the Silver-Blood Inn. He spent a good portion of that evening catching up with the people he knew there. They always seemed to enjoy the stories of his adventures with Cosnach the most, so he told a great many of them that evening. They had also made a small memorial for the man on the north wall and Victor spent a few minutes in silent remembrance of his departed friend.

The next morning he struck out north. Several Stormcloak soldiers patrolled the road now and they each greeted him with respect. Even wearing the strange looking dragonbone armor they were able to recognize the man who stood shoulder to shoulder with Ulfric Stormcloak during the siege of Solitude.


End file.
